The Enemy You Know
by SlayersGrl
Summary: A citywide power outage reveals a hostile takeover orchestrated from the inside. Can control be restored or will Atlantis fall into the hands of its enemies?
1. Prologue

Title: The Enemy You Know  
Author: SlayersGrl  
Summary: Atlantis has a traitor in its midst and they never saw it coming…  
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the show. I am simply borrowing the characters to satisfy the voices in my head...

Author's note: Alright, time for my next adventure! I'm still working out a few plot details, but here's a small teaser for you…

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Prologue:

For a single moment, time stood still. The rising tension in the air was unmistakable. Hands were poised over the triggers of their weapons, ready to fire but having to hold back. Each man knew the decision was not theirs to make. Their eyes shifted from their leader to the young unarmed woman standing before them and back again.

Her sudden arrival in the gateroom had sent the entire room into chaos. Weapons had been raised without a moment's hesitation. But the resulting actions of the woman had thrown the entire situation off.

Raising her arms high in the air, she unclenched her right hand to reveal a small glass vial. "You shoot me and we're all dead."


	2. Lockdown

Title: The Enemy You Know  
Author: SlayersGrl  
Summary: Atlantis has a traitor in its midst and they never saw it coming…  
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the show. I am simply borrowing the characters to satisfy the voices in my head...

Author's note: This story is written in a non-linear fashion. But don't worry, everything will be revealed in due time….

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Chapter 1: Lockdown

Dr. Karen Myers yawned as she stretched her arms high above her head in an attempt to ease some of the stiffness from her limbs. Upon glancing at her watch, she was surprised to see she had been perched over her lab table for the last six hours. She always managed to lose track of time when she worked, especially with the type of work she had found on Atlantis.

When she had signed up for the expedition to the Pegasus galaxy, she knew she would find some exotic plant life to study. But the botanist never expected the life forms of this galaxy to be so, well, _alien._ She had been studying her latest specimen for three days now. While she had made some impressive discoveries, there was still so much more for her to uncover.

And she couldn't help but sigh as she glanced around at the multitude of specimens waiting for her attention. There just weren't enough hours in the day for her to fully examine each plant that came across her lab table. She could only hope to scratch the surface on the amount of data waiting to be gathered.

Her stomach chose that particular moment to remind her that there were other things to be considered besides alien plants. She had completely forgotten about dinner and it was too late to get anything from the cafeteria. "1:47 in the morning…" she said as she considered her options. "I bet Josh has some food stashed somewhere…" Karen then frowned as she realized she was talking to her plants again. It was definitely time for her to seek out some real human contact...

A few minutes later, she found herself entering a brightly lit laboratory. Its appearance greatly differed from hers. While every available surface of her lab was covered with thriving plant life, this lab was covered in random alien artifacts and spare pieces of building materials. "Hey guys," she said in greeting to the two men seated at the table in the center of the room. "What are you working on?"

At the sound of her voice, the two quickly glanced up from the computer screen they had been staring at intently a moment before. The younger of the two immediately smiled at her. "Hey Karen!"

Nick Haines was always pleased to see the young scientist. It had surprised him at first to find her stopping by the lab at odd hours in the morning. But he quickly realized that she tended to keep the same hours as he and Josh and that she probably just wanted some company every once in a while. Well, that and the fact that Josh was known to have a large stash of food…

The other man, already wary of the woman's intentions, narrowed his eyes upon seeing her standing in the doorway. "You still haven't replaced what you ate the last time."

Karen, already prepared for his comment, quickly pasted her most innocent expression on her face. "Come on, it's not like it's yours. That food belongs to the entire expedition."

"Yeah," Nick added, "I don't see the name 'Josh Christianson' plastered on any of it."

Josh glared at the computer programmer, letting him know in no uncertain terms that he wasn't helping.

Nick just smiled and returned his attention to his laptop. He figured he'd just let the two of them go at it on their own.

"Just because you lack the foresight to go to the cafeteria while it's actually open does not mean I should I have to share my food with you."

"You wouldn't want to make a girl starve, now would you?" Karen replied, trying to appear as sweet and innocent as possible.

They all knew she had him at that. Josh could never stand up to Karen's charms for long. "Fine… third drawer from the left. But you owe me after this!"

She immediately flew to the drawer and began rummaging through his stash. A moment later she emerged triumphant, two energy bars and an MRE clenched in her hands. "Thanks Josh! You're a lifesaver!" She then shoved some equipment off to the side and settled onto one of the lab tables.

It never ceased to amaze her how the two men could stand to be lab partners. Programmer and structural engineer always seemed like such unrelated careers. But the two always found some project or other to work on together. And there was also the issue of their personalities… Nick was such a sweet, caring guy. He always seemed genuinely interested in her work as well as offering an ear to vent her personal frustrations. And Josh was, well… Josh. The man certainly had an interesting view on life. Everything was mathematical to him. The entire miracle of life compressed into one grand equation. She had made it her unofficial mission to find the man a social life. Maybe if she could find him a girlfriend, he might loosen up a bit…

"You know," she said in between bites of one of her energy bars, "you never did say what you were working on."

"We're working on mapping the entire structure of the city," Josh replied.

Karen frowned in confusion. "Wouldn't there be a record of that in the Ancients' database?"

"Sure, but it's all based on the Ancients' building code and system of measurement," Nick clarified. "We're translating that into Earth-based units so we can compare this structure with structures built back home."

"Sounds fascinating…" Deciding she should change the topic before they launched into a detailed explanation, she added, "So, I hear Dr. McKay went offworld this afternoon."

"Good. That means we won't have to put up with him for a while."

Karen and Nick couldn't help but agree with Josh's statement. They all had respect for the man, but he was neurotic at best and infuriating at worst. He was constantly scrutinizing their work, finding faults were there should have been only perfection.

"You have to give him some credit though," Nick countered. "He is a genius."

"One's IQ level cannot possibly excuse certain personality traits."

"I don't see you volunteering to go on missions offworld, Josh. Hell, even Dr. Kavanaugh has gone on a mission."

Josh was hardly fazed by her overt challenge to his manhood. "I'd rather stay within the safe boundaries of Atlantis than have to face the Wraith."

"Relative safety anyway. Or did you forget the Genii invasion not so long ago?"

He glared at her logic and then returned to his work. Karen grinned smugly, pleased that she had won the argument. Although, a part of her did agree with him: it was nicer to stay in the city limits rather than venture out into the unknown.

Her musings were cut short when the room was inexplicably plunged into darkness. She heard some grumbling from the direction of the men and then a small beam of light parted the darkness. Josh aimed the small light of his flashlight around the small room, trying to determine what had caused the sudden loss of power. Seeing no obvious culprit, he made his way over to the communication device by the door.

"Christianson to Control Room." After receiving no immediate response, he tried again. "Control Room, come in."

"It probably doesn't work without the power, genius." Karen said with a smirk.

He simply glared at her and then turned to the door. He attempted to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Without the power to operate the doors, they were apparently locked in for the time being.

"It's probably just a malfunction," Nick speculated. "I'm sure they'll have the power restored in no time."

"Let's hope so," Karen replied. "I'm not sure if Mr. Stingy over there would be willing to share his rations with us if we're stuck here for too long..."

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AN: My first attempt at writing OC's for Atlantis… I promise to stray as far away from Mary Sue Land as possible! 


	3. Discoveries

Title: The Enemy You Know  
Author: SlayersGrl  
Summary: Atlantis has a traitor in its midst and they never saw it coming…  
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the show. I am simply borrowing the characters to satisfy the voices in my head...

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Chapter 2: Discoveries

"What's taking so long?"

They had only been trapped in the lab for four hours and Karen was already going stir crazy. Under normal circumstances, she wasn't one to wait patiently. And this certainly qualified as anything but normal.

In response to her question, Josh replied, "I'm sure they're working as fast as they can to fix the problem. They'll get us out of here soon."

"Well, I'm tired of waiting," Karen responded. She began to pace around the darkened room, running her hands along the surface of the walls. After the third time she accidentally knocked something off one of the tables, her companions realized she was up to something.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked.

"Looking for a way out."

Josh sighed in annoyance. "The doors are sealed shut. And in case you hadn't noticed, there aren't any windows."

"Well, what about an air vent or something?"

Nick chuckled at the image of the three of them crawling through some tiny ventilation shaft in the ceiling of Atlantis. "I think you've seen too many spy movies."

"Actually…" Josh interrupted.

Karen paused in her search. "Wait, there actually are air vents?"

"Sure, how do you think the Ancients filtered air through the city when it was submerged? I'm just not sure if we can get to them from here…" He paused to think and then he remembered the program he and Nick had been working on.

Apparently, Nick had the same idea. Before Josh could say anything, the laptop was powered on. The light from the screen cast an eerie glow on the room and its occupants. Soon, the small screen was displaying a full schematic of the Lost City. A few clicks later and they were staring at a scaled version of their current location. It looked like a bunch of lines to Karen, but it must have made sense to Josh. He pointed to a spot on the screen "There."

"And that would be?" Karen asked, hoping for a translation.

Josh did even better than an explanation. Using the blue glow from the LCD screen as a guide, he grabbed one of the lab chairs and dragged it over to a spot in the far corner. He climbed on it and fiddled with the ceiling for a few minutes. A panel suddenly dislodged itself, crashing to the floor, barely missing the engineer. Nick and Karen cautiously approached to stare up at the dark hole in the ceiling.

"Can a person fit in there?" Nick asked. He hoped that they might have found a way to do something productive rather than sit around and wait.

Josh grabbed the flashlight and stuck his head into the void. He nodded his head in affirmation before realizing they couldn't see since his head was still hidden in the darkness. "Yeah, there's plenty of room up here."

"What are we waiting for? Let's go then!" Karen exclaimed. She was suddenly very happy she wasn't wearing a skirt.

Josh climbed down from the chair before responding. "You two can go if you want. I'm staying here."

"But you have to come," Nick protested. "You're the only one of us who knows this city well enough to guide us around in the dark."

"You have the map on your laptop."

"But it'll be faster if you come. Besides, the battery might not last long enough."

"Where's your sense of adventure?" Karen added.

"I used it all up when I stepped through the Stargate," Josh replied, folding his arms across his chest to signify that he wasn't going anywhere.

Karen sighed. Why did he always have to be so stubborn? She had one more trick up her sleeve… "You're going to miss out on a great opportunity to check out some of the structural design elements first hand…"

Josh faltered slightly in his resolve. He hadn't considered that. He might be able to see some of the internal structure of the city from the air shafts. "Fine, I'll go. But only to make sure the two of you don't get into trouble."

The three then climbed into the suffocating darkness. Josh lead followed closely by Karen with Nick bringing up the rear. Ten minutes into their expedition, Karen broke out in laughter.

"What's so funny?" Josh grumbled. He was currently trying to remember if they needed to turn left or right at this particular intersection. The ventilation system did not seem to follow the passageways below and he had to rely on his sense of direction to guide them.

"I was just thinking how silly we must look. It's like 'Revenge of the Nerds' meets 'Mission Impossible'." Nick couldn't help but chuckle at her analogy.

Josh, on the other hand, was not amused. "This was all your idea to begin with. For all we know, they've already restored power and we're crawling around in the ceiling for no reason."

"No, I'm pretty sure we'd know if they had turned the power back on." Nick then went on to explain his statement. "There'd probably be a lot of wind in here."

The three frowned in the dark at that realization. Perhaps this plan did have a few flaws which had been overlooked… They had no way of knowing how fast the air actually traveled in the shafts, but they did know they weren't particularly thrilled to find out first hand. Unanimously, they decided to hasten their search for a safe way out of the ventilation system.

Several arguments and a few bruised egos later, Josh felt they were finally making progress. He thought he could feel air moving steadily past him. His suspicions were confirmed when he noticed a dim light coming from a vent up ahead. "Looks like only part of the city lost power," he announced as he made his way toward the light.

"That doesn't mean anyone will be around. I'm sure most of the city is sleeping right now," Nick said from his position at the rear.

"Hello?" Josh called out through the vent. "Can anyone hear me?"

"Who said that?" a voice replied.

"Lieutenant Ford?" he replied, trying to get in a better position to see through the vent. "This is Josh Christianson. I'm one of the engineers. We seem to have lost power in our section and we were hoping we could get a little assistance."

There was a pause before the voice replied. "Um… I'd really love to help you, but I'm not really in a position to do much of anything right now. Teyla and I are locked in the brig."

Josh was surprised at that revelation. "What are you doing in the brig?"

"What are you doing in the ceiling?"

It was a fair question, but one that would have to wait. There were more pressing issues. "Lieutenant, what exactly is going on?"

"The Genii have taken control of Atlantis."


	4. Entrapment

Title: The Enemy You Know  
Author: SlayersGrl  
Summary: Atlantis has a traitor in its midst and they never saw it coming…  
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the show. I am simply borrowing the characters to satisfy the voices in my head...

Author's note: This is so frustrating! I currently have about 7 fandoms floating around in my head along with about 4 fully formed story lines. And on top of all that there's my original epic, which after floating around in my head for ten years, is suddenly demanding to be written. So, expect my writing to be erratic at best. Whichever plot demands the loudest will be written first.

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Chapter 3: Entrapment

Three hours earlier…

Four travelers quickly trekked across an expansive field towards the familiar alien artifact looming on the horizon. For the first time in a long time, they weren't being chased back to the Stargate by some soul-sucking Wraith or angry locals. However, the small group couldn't wait to be back on Atlantis.

The cause of their hurry was trudging along a few paces to the rear. The utter look of misery plastered on his face almost made you feel sorry for the guy. Well, almost. He was the one who had gotten himself into the situation in the first place. Sheppard quickly glanced back over his shoulder to assure himself that McKay was still following them, even though he already knew for a fact the man was still there. His nose had already informed him of that.

Their whole mission had been rather routine, to the point of being boring. They had come to this particular planet seeking trade allies. The rolling hills of green grass had hinted at finding a small farming community where they could stock up on some much needed food supplies. But they had quickly discovered the planet to be completely deserted. There was nothing but wide open fields and sparse forests as far as the eye could see. But most deserted planets are abandoned for a reason, as Rodney had the unfortunate opportunity to find out.

As they had explored more of the planet, they had begun to notice the strange flowers scattered across the fields. There were hundreds of tiny orange bulbs, each one closed up like it was waiting to bloom. They didn't think about them as anything more than a colorful addition to the landscape until Rodney made the mistake of tripping over a small patch of them.

The bulbs had immediately burst open, spraying the physicist with pollen. And that's when they knew exactly why this planet had been abandoned. The pollen happened to smell like decaying meat. And now Rodney was stuck with the odor until he could take a proper shower back on Atlantis.

Thankfully, the group made it back to the Jumper without any further mishaps. They quickly loaded into the ship and prepared to take off. "Atlantis, this is Major Sheppard." John had to wait a few minutes for a response to come over the radio.

"Major, you aren't due to check in for a few more hours. Is everything alright?" Dr. Weir replied.

"We finished scouting the area. It doesn't look like anyone's visited this planet for a while. No sign of the Ancients either." He decided to leave out the part about Rodney's little incident with the local plant life. They'd know all about it soon enough…

"Are you sure you checked everything thoroughly?"

Since when did Weir start questioning his methods? "Yeah, I can assure you there is nothing here. Requesting permission to return to base." If he didn't know better, he'd think she didn't want them to come back. There was a long pause in the communication and he repeated his request for them to lower the shield. Finally, the authorization came through and the pilot gently coaxed the Jumper through the gate. He had a quick glance of the almost deserted control room before the ship changed directions to head to the Jumper bay.

"I can't wait to take a shower…" Rodney muttered from his position at the back of the ship.

"I hear tomato juice works really well for getting rid of bad odors," Aiden supplied helpfully. Undeterred by Rodney's angry glare, he added, "Or vinegar is supposed to work good too."

After landing smoothly, the team quickly disembarked from the vehicle. Rodney was eager to rid himself of the overpowering scent and the rest of the team was eager to put some distance between themselves and their teammate. They were so preoccupied in rushing out of the Jumper that they almost didn't notice the dozen men pointing weapons at them.

"No one move!" one of the men commanded, a Genii weapon held firmly in hand.

"What's going on here?" the major asked, thoroughly confused by this unexpected encounter. After all, who would expect to return from a mission to end up staring down a group of armed Genii soldiers in Atlantis' Jumper bay.

"You don't get to ask questions. Just cooperate and no one will get hurt," the man replied. He then motioned for a few of the other soldiers to relieve the team of their weapons. Once their task was completed, the leader of the group motioned for his new captives to start walking. But he stopped them after they had each taken a few steps to head towards the control room.

"Just Major Sheppard and Dr. McKay." He then turned to address the man standing next to him. "Lock the other two in the brig. We'll deal with them later."

The team was rather dismayed to realize they were being separated, but they didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Something big had happened in the short time they had been gone. And the only way they were going to get any answers was to play along for the time being.

The last image Teyla and Ford had of their other two team members before they disappeared around the corner was of the major wrinkling his nose in disgust. "Why did I have to get stuck with Rodney?" John thought to himself. Any other time he would be grateful to have the scientist by his side. But at least he could take satisfaction in knowing that their captors would have to deal with the awful smell as well. If they were lucky, the smell might drive them back through the Stargate…

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AN: Sorry for the short chapter! I'll try to write more in the next chapter… 


	5. Realizations

Title: The Enemy You Know  
Author: SlayersGrl  
Summary: Atlantis has a traitor in its midst and they never saw it coming…  
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the show. I am simply borrowing the characters to satisfy the voices in my head...

Author's note: Sorry for the delay. I've been extremely busy lately. But I do plan to finish this story, especially since I already have an idea for another story… And as always, let me know what you think! I love reviews!

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Chapter 4: Realizations 

"The Genii have taken control of Atlantis."

The three current occupants of the city's ventilation system listened in stunned silence as Ford and Teyla recounted the small amount of information they had about their current situation. Somehow, the Genii had managed to not only invade the city but completely take control of it in a short period of time. They were obviously the cause of the power outage, but it was still unclear how they had managed to get through the Stargate in the first place.

"We need to find out what's going on in the control room," Karen said once they had heard all the information.

"Wait a minute! I think all this espionage stuff should be left to the professionals," Josh interjected. "We'll just figure out a way to open the cell and then we can head back to the lab."

"No," Teyla interrupted. "We should remain here. If you free us, you will only alert the Genii to your presence. They obviously have not noticed your movements yet. You should not give up the element of surprise."

Ford agreed with Teyla. "We need every advantage we can get at this point. Besides, I have an idea." He then spent the next several minutes outlining his plan. It had more than its share of risks, but it was the only option they had at the moment.

A mere twenty minutes later, Karen found herself reluctantly preparing for her first 'mission'. They were currently standing in the center of what was apparently the main circulation system. This section was much larger than the shafts that ran through the ceilings and they could actually stand and move about with ease. Karen sighed in annoyance as she ran through the hastily assembled plan in her mind. "I don't think this is a good idea."

"You don't like the plan or you don't like your role in the plan?" Nick's voice responded from somewhere to her right. It was still weird to be working in complete darkness, but they were slowly growing accustomed to it.

"Why was I volunteered to be bait."

"Because," Josh responded, "all of this is your fault. You were the one who insisted we go and investigate the reason for the power outage. So, now we're investigating. Besides, you're the plant expert, remember?"

She couldn't help but agree with his reasoning. She was the one who had dragged them all into this. But just because he was right didn't mean she had to enjoy it. "Fine, are you guys ready?"

"All set here," Nick called out.

"Just stick to the plan," Josh reminded her. "And for God's sake, whatever you do, don't break it."

"I know, I know… Can we just go?" She knew what she had to do and how she needed to do it. She just wanted to get it over with already.

"Good luck!" Nick said before hearing the rapidly diminishing sounds of his friends making their way back into the maze of air shafts. He really hoped they could pull this off.

A few minutes later, the pair had reached their destination. Josh cautiously opened up the vent to reveal darkness below them. He waited a moment before shining the small beam from his flashlight into the room below. The light revealed an unoccupied room with a sparse amount of furniture. It was exactly what they were hoping for.

"Last chance to back out."

"I know," Karen replied moving into position over the opening. Then Josh helped to lower her to the floor.

"Be careful, alright?"

She was too nervous to respond to his show of concern. Instead, she slowly crept towards the door. Luckily, the power was still on in this part of the city. They had chosen an area that was near the control room but far enough away that she would be less likely to run into any soldiers who might be patrolling the hallways around the gateroom.

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Karen opened the door and cautiously peered out into the hallway. Upon seeing the area deserted, she slowly made her way towards the gateroom. She tried to keep to the shadows as she had been instructed to do. However, she narrowly avoided detection at the next intersection by pressing her back up against the wall and trying to blend in with the darkness. Luckily, the patrolling guards weren't really looking that hard and walked right past her.

"_This is ridiculous! How did I let myself get talked into this?_" she thought. As she rounded the next corner she realized she had finally reached her destination. "_Alright, I can do this._" She knew she only had one shot to get this right.

Karen reached into her pocket and pulled out a small object. She carefully gripped it in her right hand and then boldly walked into the room. Immediately, all eyes and weapons were pointed in her direction. She quickly raised both hands in the air in the universal sign of surrender.

Her eyes quickly scanned the room until they fell on the last thing she had expected to see. A look of shock briefly passed over her features as she stared into the eyes of a man she had once believed to be a trusted colleague. Now that man was calmly pointing a gun at her along with several Genii soldiers.

But she had no time to worry about betrayals. She had a job to do. Her right hand slowly unclenched to reveal her bargaining chip. "Shoot me and we're all dead."


	6. Betrayal

Title: The Enemy You Know  
Author: SlayersGrl  
Summary: A city-wide power outage reveals a hostile takeover orchestrated from the inside. Can control be restored or will Atlantis fall into the hands of its enemies?  
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the show. I am simply borrowing the characters to satisfy the voices in my head...

Author's note: First of all, I apologize for the glaring errors in previous chapters. I finally reread them and realized there were some pretty awful typos. Hopefully I have corrected them all, but please let me know if you see any that I missed. I'm still working without a beta… Oh, and I finally got around to making an actual summary for this story. The previous summary was rather vague…

And without further interruptions from me, here's the next chapter.

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Chapter 5: Betrayal

Dr. Weir stood at the balcony of the control room. The report she had been reading was temporarily forgotten as she stared at the Stargate below her. She always felt uneasy sending people out on missions. And there were currently three teams offword, including Major Sheppard's team.

Glancing at her watch, she was surprised to see it read 1:47. She hadn't realized it was that late already. None of the teams were due back until later that day. But Elizabeth knew she wasn't going to get much sleep tonight. Something was… off… but she hadn't been able to find out what was causing her feelings of uneasiness. She had just decided to head back to her office to finish looking over some reports when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Dr. Weir, I have something I think you should see."

She turned to find that the voice belonged to Dr. Kavanaugh. Lost in her thoughts, she had completely forgotten that she wasn't the only one occupying the control room at this late hour. The scientist and several technicians were currently running a system diagnostics on their jury-rigged computer system that allowed them to operate the city.

Normally, Dr. McKay would be overseeing the work, but since he was currently offworld, Dr. Kavanaugh had volunteered to do it. She suspected his motives weren't entirely altruistic. The man was always trying to demonstrate his superiority. But she had dealt with his ego in the past and she felt they had finally come to some sort of understanding. While she valued his opinion, she was still the one who ultimately made the decisions.

Elizabeth frowned as she walked over to where the scientist was standing in front of one the laptops connected to the Ancient control panel. They were supposed to be running a routine maintenance program. She hadn't really expected them to find anything important, which made her worry even more. "What did you find?" she asked as she stared at the diagnostics information being displayed on the screen. Nothing looked out of place to her, but then again she only had limited knowledge of this field.

She was shocked to suddenly feel the barrel of a gun pressed up against her head. But she was even more surprised to see who was holding it. She had always prided herself on taking the time and effort to get to know the people she worked with. That was especially true now that they were stranded in another galaxy with no way to contact home. She thought she had everyone figured out: what motivated them to do what they did, why they had agreed to come on this trip to explore unknown worlds. But everyone makes mistakes. She just never thought she could misjudge someone so completely. Who would have thought Kavanaugh would do something like this?

"What are you doing?" she asked, amazed that her voice sounded so calm when she was shaking inside.

"What's it look like I'm doing? I'm relieving you of command."

He then shifted his gaze to look behind her. He pulled her back from the monitor until she was standing in front of him, the gun still firmly pointed at her head. His previous action had not gone unnoticed and several security personnel were warily pointing their weapons at the two of them. "Put your weapons down." The unspoken threat hung in the air.

Elizabeth nodded her head to indicate that they should comply with his requests for now. She then watched as he reached with his free hand and typed a few commands on the keyboard. A program activated but it didn't appear to have an immediate effect. At least, it didn't affect the control room.

"I don't know what you're hoping to accomplish. You're completely outnumbered."

"Then I guess I should even out the odds." Just then, the Stargate sprang to life. "Right on time," he mumbled before forcing his captive to follow him over to the monitor by the dialing device. She could only wonder at how the screen could be registering Dr. Kavanaugh's identification code before he was lowering the shield to allow the visitors to enter the city.

Her list of surprises only increased when she saw who had just materialized from the event horizon. She was relatively certain she could have handled a small internal coup. But this had just escalated into something much larger.

"Dr. Kavanaugh, I see you've successfully completed your end of the bargain," Koyla called out as he motioned for his troops to secure the area. They met with little resistance since the security forces had already been forced to disarm themselves. He then ascended the stairs to join the two doctors in the main control room.

"You've been planning this for a while," Elizabeth stated to the man currently holding her hostage.

"Actually," Kavanaugh replied, "they were the ones who approached me."

"I presented him with an opportunity he could not refuse," Koyla added.

"An opportunity to betray his own people?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you," was the reply from behind her. He then turned his attention to other matters. "I cut the power to the rest of the city. All the doors are sealed, but there might still be some people caught in the hallways. You should send some of your men to search the area."

Elizabeth watched as the Genii commander briefly narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Then he issued the order for his men to do as requested. But in that moment, she had already started to formulate a plan.


	7. Negotiations

Title: The Enemy You Know  
Author: SlayersGrl  
Summary: A city-wide power outage reveals a hostile takeover orchestrated from the inside. Can control be restored or will Atlantis fall into the hands of its enemies?  
Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the show. I am simply borrowing the characters to satisfy the voices in my head...

Author's note: This chapter has actually been written for a long time. I just had to write the stuff in between before I could post it…

* * *

Chapter 6: Negotiations

_But she had no time to worry about betrayals. She had a job to do. Her right hand slowly unclenched to reveal her bargaining chip. "Shoot me and we're all dead."_

Karen paused to make sure no one was going to shoot her on the spot just for spite. Then she continued with her explanation. "This vial contains an extremely toxic gas. Anyone who breathes it will be dead in minutes."

"And how did you come to have this powerful weapon in your possession?" Koyla asked, clearly not believing the validity of her threat.

"If you must know, it was found in one of the Ancient's labs a few days ago. And since it comes from an exotic plant, it's been my job to study it."

"She's bluffing," Kavanaugh called down from his position on the control room balcony. "I would have known if we had such a weapon."

Karen then heard the major's voice from somewhere behind the scientist. "You must have missed the memo… I guess you were too busy plotting your little coup." At least she now knew they were alive.

She realized she only had one more card to play. "Perhaps we should all just find out if I'm bluffing." She then loosened her grip slightly.

Koyla immediately interrupted her action. "Surely you don't wish to die? And you'd be killing your own people."

"Better to die on your feet than live on your knees1."

The commander frowned at her response. "What is it that you want? You must have had some goal in mind for barging in here."

"Actually, I just wanted to know how the Genii were able to invade the city so easily." She took the opportunity to glare at Kavanaugh. "But since I have your attention, how about you release one of the hostages."

"Dr. Weir is out of the question." Koyla then paused to consider his other two captives. "You can take Dr. McKay."

"No!" Kavanaugh protested. "Do you know how much damage he can do if you let him loose in the city?"

"Have you forgotten that most of the city is without power," Koyla countered. "Besides, every system is controlled from here." He then turned back to Karen. "Although, I don't know what you're hoping to accomplish. You have nowhere to go." He motioned for his men to release Rodney. "We will find where you are hiding. You have no hope of retaking this city."

Karen simply smiled and gestured for McKay to follow her as she slowly began to back out of the room. Once he had reached the top of the large staircase leading down to the Stargate, McKay glanced back at Weir and Sheppard, unsure if he was doing the right thing by abandoning them.

John knew why he was hesitating. While he appreciated the sentiment, he knew they needed to take every chance they were given. "Don't be an idiot McKay. Just go!" He then watched his friend disappear down the stairs. Elizabeth turned to look at him, his exact thoughts mirrored in her expression. Rodney had better be able to come up with some brilliant plan or they were all screwed.

Meanwhile, Karen and Rodney slowly backed out of the gateroom. As soon as the two were around the corner, Karen grabbed McKay's hand and bolted down the hallway. She dragged him into one of the rooms at the end of the hall and immediately closed the door. Rodney was too surprised at this latest turn of events to realize that she had jumped up on a nearby table and was fiddling with something on the ceiling. A moment later a panel dropped down to reveal a dark passage way overhead.

"Come on! They'll be looking for us!"

Then a hand reached down and pulled Karen into the suffocating darkness. McKay, having learned to just go with the flow in situations like these, immediately followed suit and was pulled up into the air vent. A quiet voice instructed him to crawl forward. Occasionally the voice would issue instructions to turn left or right. Soon they had reached their destination. Upon emerging from the dark tunnel, Rodney found himself in a completely new environment. "Where are we?" he asked, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim lighting provided by a laptop in the far corner.

"Pretty cool, huh? We stumbled upon it during our mad dash through the air vents."

McKay found himself standing in what appeared to be a small room. However, unlike the rooms in the rest of the city, the walls and ceiling were all made of the same metallic material as the shafts he had just crawled through. And in the middle of the room there was a giant fan which was currently lying dormant. "This is the center of the circulation system?"

Josh was about to respond that they had come to the same conclusion when Nick interrupted their topic of conversation. "What's that awful smell?"

"I was wondering about that too…" Karen added. All eyes were now firmly turned in Rodney's direction.

"It was an unfortunate encounter with an alien plant, alright?" he responded. Was a shower really too much to ask for?

However, he had forgotten that he was standing next to a botanist. "Really? What did the plant look like?"

Thankfully, Josh interceded. "Karen, perhaps you two can discuss flora later. I think we have much larger issues to deal with right now."

"Yeah," McKay replied, suddenly remembering he had a complaint he had wanted to voice. "like how come I was last pick? I'm just as valuable as any other member of this expedition!"

"Relax Dr. McKay," Nick called out from his position in front of the computer. "You're the one we really wanted anyway. We just couldn't let them know that."

"Oh, well in that case…" He stopped his reply mid sentence as he watched Karen casually toss her vial of deadly gas in Josh's direction. "Be careful with that stuff!"

"What this?" Josh asked, holding up the vial. "It's actually empty."

"I'm a pretty good liar, aren't I?" Karen added, obviously pleased with her work.

* * *

AN: The quote "It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees" is actually credited to Emiliano Zapata (a Mexican revolutionary for those who have never heard the name). I've always liked the quote and I finally got to incorporate it into a fic. 


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